Third Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee Held

The 3rd meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Review Committee (POPRC 3) was held in Geneva, Switzerland from November 11 to 23, 2007, to consider listing chemicals to the Annex pursuant to Article 8 of the Stockholm Convention on POPs. The Committee consists of 31 experts, including Dr. Masaru Kitano, professor of the School of Science and Technology of Meiji University, from Japan.

At the meeting, the Committee decided and agreed on the following points:
1) To recommend the 4th Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention to consider listing Chlordecone, Lindane, Pentabromodiphenyl ether, Hexabromobiphenyl, and Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in Annex A (elimination) or B (restriction).
2) To prepare draft risk management evaluations of Pentachlorobenzene, Octabromodiphenyl ether, Alpha hexachlorocyclohexane, and Beta hexachlorocyclohexane by POPRC 4.
3) To suspend considerations of endsulfan proposed newly at the 3rd meeting.

The government of Japan contributes to the development of risk management evaluations and others by providing information requested from the secretariat of the convention. For this purpose, the government gathers information regarding the 4 chemicals (Pentachlorobenzene, Octabromodiphenyl ether, Alpha hexachlorocyclohexane, and Beta hexachlorocyclohexane) from stakeholders for preparation of the draft risk management evaluations.

For Japanese